Australian Antarctic Division: Leading Australia’s Antarctic Program

Airdrop ensures Australia's Antarctic runway opens on schedule

Casey Airdrop

Video transcript

Robb Clifton - Operations Manager

So yesterday we used a Royal Australian Air Force C-17A Globemaster to do an airdrop of needed parts into Casey station which will assist us get the runway at Wilkins, which is about 70 kilometres from Casey, open to start the summer season.

The parts that we've dropped in are to repair a snow blower and this snow blower is needed to clear the runway in order to land the first flight.

The airdrop capability is a fantastic capability for the Australian Antarctic Program. It means we can get cargo and much-needed materials into our stations without going through the effort of preparing a full runway for an airplane to land on, so for us it's a real game-changer.